MrBeast's recent philanthropic YouTube video, titled "I Built A City To Save Kids From Illegal Labor," has amassed over 51 million views since it was posted Sept 19, and shows how he and a crew of people spent months building a "self-sustaining" village in Ghana for close to $10 million. The town includes a school, a community center, houses for teachers, new drainage systems to prevent flooding, water tanks for clean water and more.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has the No. 1 channel on the platform, with 518 million subscribers, and often shows him embarking on extreme challenges and philanthropic projects.
Donaldson is the owner of Feastables, a Fair Trade Certified chocolate company that works exclusively with "farms that actively
implement child labor monitoring and remediation systems (CLMRS) to identify, address, and prevent child labor," according to its website. He built the village in part to help keep kids from being exploited by farms.
As with many of his philanthropic videos, this one has been met with a sprinkle of skepticism about his motives. Donaldson responded to a user on X who criticized him for not putting his efforts towards the people in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina.
"I literally do," Donaldson responds. "I have a 501c non profit and have disturbed 10s of MILLIONS of meals in America, many in my local community. If I listed all the philanthropic things we do locally, I literally wouldn’t be able to fit it in this tweet.
I literally do. I have a 501c non profit and have disturbed 10s of MILLIONS of meals in America, many in my local community. If I listed all the philanthropic things we do locally I literally wouldn’t be able to fit it in this tweet.
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) September 21, 2026
USA TODAY reached out to Donaldson for comment, and was pointed to a list of charitable actions MrBeast has taken in Greenville, including distributing over 700,000 pounds of food, supporting local food drives and helping with disaster relief.
Donaldson's philanthropic videos have often been accused of "performative altruism" – performing acts of kindness with the end goal of going viral. Donaldson insists that virality isn't his main concern with this segment of videos. When an X user noted that his humanitarian videos don't get as many views as his regular videos, Donaldson responded by saying, "They don’t, and it’s funny when people say I only help people for views because it’s literally the opposite lol. Doesn’t matter though, helping people brings me purpose, and even if no one watches, I’ll keep making them."
They don’t and it’s funny when people say I only help people for views because it’s literally the opposite lol. Doesn’t matter though, helping people brings me purpose and even if no one watches I’ll keep making them ❤️
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) September 19, 2026
A video he made in 2023, in which he helped pay for 10-minute cataract surgeries for 1,000 people, sparked a debate about healthcare in the United States and about his motives. "Why not just do good with no reward other than self-satisfaction, knowing you're making the world a better place? Maybe some people see it as attention seeking," one person asked him in an X post.
Twitter - Rich people should help others with their money
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 30, 2023
Me - Okay, I’ll use my money to help people and I promise to give away all my money before I die. Every single penny.
Twitter - MrBeast bad
Donaldson responded to the criticism in a post that reads: "Twitter - Rich people should help others with their money. Me - Okay, I’ll use my money to help people and I promise to give away all my money before I die. Every single penny. Twitter - MrBeast bad."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MrBeast built a $10 million 'self-sustaining' village in Ghana
